Bombay HC suggests Maharashtra IG Prisons to appoint doctors, nursing staff in jails
India Today
Bombay HC suggested the Inspector General (Prisons) for appointment of the Medical Officers, nursing staff and other facilities and provisions required to be made available according to the prison hospital rules.
The Bombay High Court has suggested corrective measures to be followed by the Inspector General Prison (IGP) to ensure that the Maharashtra Prisons (Prison Hospital) Rules are being complied with.
While deciding the bail application of the 2018 Elgar Parishad accused, Varavara Rao, the bench of Justices SB Shukre and GA Sanap were informed by Senior Advocate Anand Grover that there were no basic medical facilities available in Taloja prison.
This was one of the primary reasons for Rao to seek medical bail. Even the high court, while granting him interim medical bail, had noted the poor condition prevalent in Taloja Central Prison.
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The Bench said, "We have perused the provisions of the Maharashtra Prisons (Prison Hospital) Rules, 1970. A perusal of the rules would show that a complete mechanism has been provided under these rules to take care of the grievance made by the Senior Advocate.”
The court noted that there is no proper implementation of these rules and thus the court opined that if some corrective measures are adopted, then the grievance made by the accused in this case as well as the prisons all over Maharashtra could be taken care of.
The Bench further noted at the outset that the Inspector General (Prisons) is in charge of prisons in Maharashtra and it is his duty to ensure compliance with the prison rules. Thus, the bench thought it necessary to issue certain directions to the IG.
